The Sick Bay
by TheShitlord
Summary: It's a Highschool AU people! Ace gets ill which never usually happens, EVER so decides to go to the school 'Sick Bay' when he can't seem to shake it off. Why did he even bother... Sucky summary is sucky. My first fic so reviews would be very much appreciated. Rated T just to be safe and Ace swears ;)


**The Sick Bay **

Ace rubbed his eyes only to find that it did nothing to help his blurred vision. He did not sleep at ALL last night, what with all his coughing and needing to get a tissue every other hour. And of all days it was a Monday. He was feeling pretty crap Sunday evening but to him there was nothing a good night's sleep couldn't cure. Hell, he'd sleep spontaneously throughout the whole day, EVERY DAY! Why wasn't it working this time? Without even looking at the time, he knew it was at least 10 past 7 so he had to get up for school.

He shuffled out of his room, head lazily hung back as he walked like a zombie awakened from the grave. His head slowly rose as he averted his attention to the door right of his creaking open. Luffy walked sleepily but much more alert than Ace out of his room and smiled as he looked up at him.

"Hey Ace. How'd you sleep?" His grin grew as he was engaging himself into "Crazy, happy, usual Luffy - Mode".

"Crap! Why did Smoker find it appropriate to cough in my mouth when I was yawning anyway?" Ace only assumed that it was his best friend's (a term he used very loosely when describing Smoker) fault that he was in this state.

"I'm guessing it's because you didn't give him a chip at lunch." Luffy suggested, his face completely straight. For Ace's younger brother, food was a serious matter that shouldn't be joked about.

Ace took that as a fair excuse for someone as retarded as Smoker but couldn't help holding a grudge knowing that this illness was really getting to him despite being infected on Friday and it only being a common cold. When he gets his hands on him he'll -

Ace's thought of how he'd kill Smoker were interrupted by Garp shouting from downstairs.

"Luffy! Ace! It's 7:30! Get your asses downstairs front and center!"

Ace ignored his Grandpa's 3 - sentence lectures because they were useless in effect. Neither he nor Luffy actually listened to those.

"Fuck it, i'm coming upstairs! You're taking too long!"

Without any real motivation, Garp was on the landing looking around for his unresponsive Grandchildren. Don't get him wrong, they weren't your typical teenage emo children that "nobody understood", they were good kids. It was just today Ace was feeling more than under the weather and Luffy was one of the special kids. You know, the ones with the attention span of a dead goldfish. Garp failed to see that in his Grandsons however. Mostly because he was terrible at reading people's emotions but also because he thought they were perfect in every way imaginable.

"7:30? Can I have Breakfast then?" An excitable voice shouted from the bathroom called.

"Yeah! I don't see why not!" Garp shouted back.

A huge elasticated arm stretched from the now open bathroom door and grabbed onto the stair railing and, much alike the pinging effect on a rubber band, the rest of the flexible body flew down the stairs. Jesus, did he not know anything about safety? Garp turned to his eldest Grandson who was looking dazedly into space.

"Hey sport, you alright?" Garp mentally punched himself. Sport? Where the fuck did that come from? Oh well, maybe he won't notice the awkward parent - like language Garp accidentally used on him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Eeeer, actually not brilliant." Ace rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. It was kind of obvious that he had tried to lie to his Grandpa just that moment ago. It's okay though, maybe he didn't notice his slip up and take it the wrong way. He just didn't want him to worry.

"What's up? Something on your mind?" Garp never usually did this kind of thing with those kids. He trained them till they were lying in their own sweat every weekend, he'd leave them in jungles so that they could learn the skills of survival. Not that they needed it though. They had been through enough shit these past years. He wasn't the overly doting parent type.

"Nah. Just got a bug. I'll probably be okay as long as I don't eat anything." Ace chuckled at that, knowing that he had an enormous appetite so the irony was excruciatingly funny.

Garp relaxed his tense muscles. He thought he had some girl trouble or something. That would've been awkward! Nevertheless, he was still surprised to see Ace sick. That stuff just never happened to his boys. Like. Ever. They were durable like, well, rubber. This must be serious, especially if it's Ace.

"Hmmmm..." he raised a bushy eyebrow to Ace's statement. He wanted to help but his mind went blank. What could he do to actually help the situation? Pat him on the back? Put him to bed? feel his temperature? Wait, wait wait... That was for new-borns. OK, so maybe Garp was pretty rusty when it came to looking after children when they're sick. What do teenagers do when they're sick? Do they complain even more because they're pubescent little pricks or do they try to brush it off like it's nothing and "Swag" it out. (He was sure he used that word right).

And Just like that. BAM! Like a strike of lightning, he was given the answer!

"I KNOW!" Garp started excitedly, obviously triumphant with his new idea but calmed himself down and tried to "Swag" it out (Man, he was getting good at this slang stuff).

"Why don't you go to school, see how you feel and just come home if you feel bad?" He tried to sound cool and collected but the fear of his idea being rejected by Ace was terrifying him. He'd hate to be seen as "uncool" by him!

"Yeah, you're right. In any other case, I'd probably just live through the day and get on with it but this kills." Ace looked up at his Grandpa and forced a smile despite the endless ache in his temples. It was comforting that Garp seemed to understand; little did he know he was throwing himself a mental party for having Ace accept his suggestion.

Ace looked at the clock behind him to find it was 5 minutes until they had to be out the door and he was still in his pyjamas!

"Oh shit! I gotta hurry up!" He sped back into his room, threw on his uncomfortable uniform and tied his shoulder - length hair back with a tiny hairband.

"Bitches love my long hair." Ace mused to himself as he flung himself out the door and down the stairs. Despite seeming hypocritical of Luffy and his disregard for personal safety, it was all for preserving punctuality so it didn't really count.

"Luffy get your shit together, we're going!" The younger .D. brother stretched his head and craned his neck round the corner, a piece of toast in his mouth, whilst staring at Ace who was standing in the corridor.

"Bud awm eeding!" A poor attempt of the words "But I'm eating" as Luffy's mouth was full of toast.

Ace ignored his brother's protests, grabbing him by his extended neck and running out the door. He could make it through the day if nothing went wrong. It's school, what's the worst that could happen?

* * *

Ace had managed to drag himself to school and into first period. Drama. He liked Drama though as his teacher was nice. He had Miss Jones, a young, attractive woman with a colourful fashion sense and personality. She also had huge jugs so that helped. The class was rehearsing for exams and Ace was in a group with his friend Marco. One of Miss Jones' main rules was "BE ENTHUSIASTIC!" however Ace couldn't conjure up enough energy to follow that. He was too tired and it was becoming apparent to Marco as well.

"Hey Ace, are you okay. You look a bit…. Ropey."

Ace looked up at his friend, the dark circles under his eyes could give Law's a run for their money. "In all honesty, I feel like shit."

Ace hated being dramatic but he felt noticing it instead of pretending it's not there was the right way to do things. After all, he was 17 years old and could look after himself. He wouldn't get any better if he left it alone.

Marco wasn't surprised by the way Ace looked. "I thought so. You can go if you want."

Ace found the suggestion of going home was coming up a lot. Was it a red herring or should he take his friends' advice?

"Yeah, you're right I should if I want it to go away." Ace wore a weak smile on his face. Just as he said that, a stabbing pain struck in his forehead. He lifted a hand to touch his temple lightly. Why was this happening to him? He's never been this sick before… EVER! (It shows how obvious it is that Ace didn't get ill very often almost never so this was as bad as it got for him).

"Ace, are you okay?" Miss Jones walked up to the group with a concerned look on her face. Ace thanked the Lord that he had Miss Jones as his drama teacher. She was too nice to not let him go.

"Ace has a headache. He's been acting weird all day!" Marco tried to help his friend by exaggerating Ace's illness even though it might just be a one day headache and it was first period.

Ace and Marco watched as Miss Jones' face changed expressions, clearly processing whether she should be the nice lady she was or have a stern streak today. Her face softened, to the boys' delight. "Oh you poor thing! You should probably go home; when you get to the office, tell them that I said you could go because you looked unwell." Miss Jones put her hand on his forehead and made a sympathetic expression. Ace picked up his bag and left for the office.

* * *

The office always freaked Ace out; it was cold and echoed a lot like some sort of institution. He approached a window (one you couldn't see through) with a bell on it. It read in comic sans "RING BELL ONCE AND WAIT FOR ANSWER". Monkeys must have written this notice, Ace thought, for two reasons. One: There was no proof that this person actually knew how to talk properly and Two: Who the fuck uses comic sans anymore? He rang the bell as he continued thinking.

Ace's daydreaming was cut short when the window abruptly opened. Standing there was Mrs Fisher. Mrs Fisher was a grumpy old bitch who didn't seem to enjoy teenagers. When she signed up as a school receptionist, she must have turned up to the wrong place on her first day coz she looked pissed off to be here.

"Eerrr, hi." Ace thought he'd start the conversation since Mrs Fisher didn't seem so willing.

"You need to give something in?" There was no way to explain the monotone groan of Mrs Fisher's voice.

"No, I feel pretty terrible and Miss Jones said I should go." Ace squinted as his migraine gave another kick to his forehead.

"Gimme your school planner. I need the emergency contact number in it." She stuck her fat hand out the window for Ace to put his planner in.

Ace felt bad for his planner, he'd probably not see it again. Mrs Fisher always seemed to be considered as the 'Head Receptionist' when there were about 20 other receptionists at this school and she was by far the laziest. She'd probably lose his planner in with all the biscuits on her desk. He did as he was told anyway.

"Okay, come in and sit in the Sick Bay. We'll wait for your parents to collect you." Mrs Fisher opened the door next to the window which Ace walked through and stopped for a brief moment to take in his surroundings. It was a huge office filled with all these receptionists. They were just sitting eating biscuits, drinking tea and bitching. One of the women was actually watching 'Hamster on a piano', not even bothering to _look _like she was doing anything productive.

Suddenly, Ace was pulled out of his inspections to realise something. He had NO idea where the Sick Bay was! He'd never had to go before because he was NEVER sick. This was turning out to be much more awkward than he thought. He then realised he'd been standing still for way too long and now he was looking really creepy in the middle of this office. He decided to move, he just had no fucking idea where! Ace started walking around like a disoriented penguin when he passed a room labelled "Sick Bay". So THAT'S where it was. He started to think he was getting as bad as Luffy's best friend when it came to direction. Shit, this was embarrassing… No matter, he could always pretend this was one of his symptoms. The office ladies probably thought he was retarded. Ace walked through the door and sat down on the damp, uncomfortable bed and pulled a long and tremendously gross clump of hair off his arm. That must've come from the last person who was here. Brilliant.

Ace peeked through the window next to the bed looking out to the school office and watched the variety of lazy bitches eating biscuits and not answering phones. His eyes turned to give their attention to Mrs Fisher who was idly wafting his planner in her hands like she'd completely forgotten what to do with it. Poor planner, Ace thought. All alone and mistreated, in the clutches of that god forsaken kraken. Ace couldn't help smiling as his mind humorously created a hilarious image of a kraken Mrs Fisher, destroying the school with her huge tentacles. Hehehehe…. How funny he could be…

Ace snapped out of it as the centre of all his jokes stood up and waddled over towards the room he was currently daydreaming in. Finally, that dumb broad decided to get off her ass and let me go, Ace thought. Mrs Fisher approached him, still waving the planner in the air mockingly.

"I can't read your handwriting, it's a mess!" She stuck the little book out in front of her for Ace to decode for her.

Ace was losing his patience, "It's not that hard to read Miss." He said in a stressed tone as he took the planner and opened the 'Emergency Contacts' page. Before arrogantly explaining how he was right and she was wrong, Ace stopped in his thought track and grimaced at the state of the page. Of course Smoker had drawn tits all over where Garp's number and E – mail had been written. What a dick!

"Ah, I see where you're coming from." Ace's completely unimpressed tone oozed from his words. He was very much pissed off with his frienemy and wanted to politely murder him. Grabbing a pen and wanting to make it easy on special Mrs Fisher, he wrote in huge writing Garp's number and E – Mail address (which he never used). Mrs Fisher just looked at the dirty planner as he handed it back to her. If she was gonna be a bitch about it, he might as well just have it back.

"You should make what you write in your planner much more clear in future." With that, Mrs Fisher just walked her fat ass out the door and sat back at her very much dormant post. As if she was a busy woman! Oh well, it was better Ace spent less time in her company since he hated her. Simple as!

* * *

2 hours past and Ace was still sitting on the rickety bed, in the deteriorating room whilst people were actually having fun and soaking in the sunlight. Just as he began to think about his sickness, a horrible cough rattled in his throat. Ace almost choked on it. Damn, that gave him a scare! It was then, Ace remembered why he was sitting in his personal hell, he was sick and he needed to get rid of it. It seemed however, this crappy environment was just making it worse. And where the fuck was Garp?!

If things weren't bad enough, Mrs Fisher stuck her ever so familiar face round the door just to tell him "You're making an awful lot of noise! Some of us are trying to work, yeah?"

Inside, Ace wanted to explode or punch her. Yeah, that would be satisfying as hell. Instead, he showed her how much respect he had for the failed receptionist by raising one quirky eyebrow judgingly at her as if to say "Really?". That clearly didn't sit well with Mrs Fisher as she scowled deeply before saying "Eeerr! Excuse me, what was that supposed to mean?!"

Ace dropped his quirky eyebrow since he wasn't really expecting her to pick up on his sarcastic gesture. You know, what with it being the language of SMART people and everything. If sarcasm got him anywhere, it certainly got him out of situations with stupid individuals.

"I have a tick. Yeah, don't take my quizzical appearance personally." Shit, did he just use the word 'quizzical'? Maybe holding conversations with Law were turning out to be profitable after all.

Mrs Fisher looked both guilty and embarrassed as she stammered "Oh. Okay, sorry I – Um – Well…" This awkward drool of syllables flowed out Mrs Fisher's mouth before she shuffled out of the manky room and shut the door in a surprising and ever so elegant slam. Ace was getting fed up as fuck and wished he just fucking toughed out his illness through the day.

Another half hour passed and Ace wanted to drown himself in the lime scale encrusted sink in the corner of the room, provided it actually worked. Who was he kidding, that thing looked like it hadn't been used in fucking years! His coughs had got worse and the dust wasn't helping, his headache was turning his brain to mush and his vision was clouding at the edges. If he had stayed home, he probably wouldn't be this bad. It was most probably spending an extensive amount of time with Mrs Fisher that was causing this. She seemed to have that general effect on people. The door opened once again as Ace was pulling a long black hair from his school jumper. Rank.

A short skinny woman walked in wearing – Ace actually didn't give a fuck around this time. He'd been imprisoned in this hell hole for well over two hours and was done with analysing these dopey mares who seemed to be multiplying. He was so done with admin receptionists!

She spoke up, a little intimidated by Ace's deadly scowl, "Ace? That's you right? Your Dad's come to get you."

Ace was too tired to tell her Garp CERTAINLY wasn't his Dad. All he knew was he was free, he was fed up and if he ever got sick again, he was just gonna wait it out the whole day before doing anything about it. He never got his planner back either.

* * *

**Annnnnnnnd CUT! SO yeah, that was my first ever fic and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Reviews and all the rest are accepted with open arms so don't be afraid to be critical. That way, it can inspire me to write more of the shit that I write and you can tolerate it or enjoy it! WOOOH! Thanks for reading and don't forget to give me a review! **

**Yours sexily,**

**The Shitlord**


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